Saturday, August 31, 2013

As the U.S. moves closer to military action against Syria for alleged use of chemical weapons against civilians, a photo has emerged of Secretary of State John Kerry having a swanky dinner with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his wife, Asma, a scant two years ago. Kerry now condemns Assad as a "thug and murderer."

Awkward? Yes. Surprising? Hardly. As seen in my latest article, Washington politicians have often been caught on camera associating with the world's worst bad guys.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Some words of sanity from Chris Hedges. The whole thing is a great read, but here's the paragraph that hit me hardest:

"If we actually had a functioning judicial system and an independent press, Manning would have been a witness for the prosecution against the war criminals he helped expose. He would not have been headed, bound and shackled, to the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. His testimony would have ensured that those who waged illegal war, tortured, lied to the public, monitored our electronic communications and ordered the gunning down of unarmed civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen were sent to Fort Leavenworth’s cells. If we had a functioning judiciary the hundreds of rapes and murders Manning made public would be investigated. The officials and generals who lied to us when they said they did not keep a record of civilian dead would be held to account for the 109,032 “violent deaths” in Iraq, including those of 66,081 civilians. The pilots in the “Collateral Murder” video, which showed the helicopter attack on unarmed civilians in Baghdad that left nine dead, including two Reuters journalists, would be court-martialed."

Saturday, August 24, 2013

We are the only species on earth that cooks its food - and we are also the cleverest species on the planet. The question is: do we cook because we're clever and imaginative, or are we clever and imaginative because our ancestors discovered cooking?

Horizon examines the evidence that our ancestors' changing diet and their mastery of fire prompted anatomical and neurological changes that resulted in taking us out of the trees and into the kitchen.

Loved the food porn and music. Especially of people eating it. Delightful and funny.

Fascinating to consider just how huge a technological advancement it was for our ancestors to begin using fire, cooking food, and eating meat. Cooking is a useful and pleasurable external enhancement of our digestive system and process. We might be here because our ancestors tried something fun and new.

"We're talking about reinventing the world's monetary system... from the ground up," says Jeffrey Tucker, executive editor of Laissez Faire Books, and an enthusiastic proponent of the open source peer-to-peer currency system Bitcoin.

After participating in a panel discussion on Bitcoin at Freedom Fest, Tucker sat down with Reason Magazine's Matt Welch to explain why he believes Bitcoin is an example of a new enterprise that can help create "a new world of liberty, despite the existence of the leviathan state."

Held each July in Las Vegas, Freedom Fest is attended by around 2,000 limited-government enthusiasts and libertarians. ReasonTV spoke with over two dozen speakers and attendees and will be releasing interviews over the coming weeks.

About 5.30 minutes.

Produced by Anthony L. Fisher. Camera by Paul Detrick and Tracy Oppenheimer.

"He's trying to make it look like Fox News... And it's like-- it doesn't really work... What I think would be better is just him in his office, in his cozy home. I don't want Ron Paul trying to look like a talking head. I want Ron Paul being Ron Paul."

"Although there is something to be said like Ben Swann said when we interviewed him, that there are visual cues; there are these subconscious things that make people think, 'Oh, this is news,' but I don't really know if Ron Paul's audience in general falls for that, and if the idea is not to preach to the choir, the people that already love him who are going to be the ones paying ten dollars a month to see this, but it's to spread the message, then why are you having people pay ten dollars to see this, right? If the idea is to spread the word, how are you going to convince somebody who hates Ron Paul and thinks he's some right-wing conspiracist [sic] and doesn't understand the concept of liberty to pay ten dollars. Someone who thinks he's funded by the Koch brothers is not going to pay ten dollars to watch the Ron Paul Channel."

"...if he wants to just spread liberty, he should give it away... I'm not saying it's the only ethical thing to do, but the smart thing to do in this day and age is to give everything away and find out other ways to make money and not even worry about it, maybe even still have a day job."

I see so many people complaining about the price of Ron Paul's new channel being $10 per month. I subscribed not only to see what it has to offer, but also because I don't mind giving Dr. Paul $10 a month (for at least a few months) to see how the channel progresses. Think about it - $10 is the amount you'd spend eating out for lunch one day.

I can understand people being hesitant to donate to campaigns if your candidate doesn't get elected and feeling like you received nothing in return, but for $10 a month you ARE getting something in return. Unfiltered, honest news from undoubtedly the most intelligent host of any news program.

I'd really like to see the channel grow to be 24/7 with various programs and honest reporting, but for now will settle for Dr. Paul's commentary."

Some commenters disagreed:

wtf
Submitted by Clint on Mon, 08/19/2013 - 18:04.

"I'm SO sick of the pro RP Channel people trying to guilt the rest of us into subscribing. The name of the game on the internet is FREE content. Get it!

We are supposed to give to Campaign for Liberty, LibertyPAC, Rands campaigns, Amash, Cruz et al., and now Ron's channel...WTF!"

Prison Planet TV

Submitted by Brent Hartman on Sun, 08/18/2013 - 10:44.

$5.95 a month, and you get to share your subscription with 10 friends. I see people on the DP attacking Alex Jones for profiting off the liberty movement, but Alex Jones subscription TV has way more content, for a much lower price, and he encourages to share with 10 other people to help spread the message. $5.95 a month for 11 subscriptions vs. $110.00 a month for 11 subscriptions.

"A military judge on Wednesday morning sentenced Army Pfc. Bradley Manning to 35 years in prison for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks...

According to the military, Manning is required to serve one-third of the sentence before he becomes eligible for parole...

The decision was immediately condemned by the American Civil Liberties Union.

“When a soldier who shared information with the press and public is punished far more harshly than others who tortured prisoners and killed civilians, something is seriously wrong with our justice system,” said Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project."

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

"As a true patriot, I would gladly die in battle defending my homeland. I love my country more than my own life. But I would also be more than willing to give my last breath in the name of, say, Mexico, Panama, Japan, or the Czech Republic. The most honorable thing a man can do is lay down his life for his country. Or another country. The important thing is that it's a country.

Like those heroes who spilled their blood fighting for independence against the British Empire, I, too, would forfeit everything to win for my countrymen the right to be governed by politicians in our own capital instead of in a capital located further away. Nothing is more profound or more sacred than to die for one's country, an adjacent country, or some other, foreign country.

The truth is, there are a lot of countries, each of which is the most noble cause possible to die for. I only regret that I have but one life to lose for but one country."

Monday, August 19, 2013

In present discussions over Washington foreign policy and so-called "aid to Egypt," can we please stop calling it "aid to Egypt?" It's a very deceptive term to describe the yearly transfer of over a billion dollars worth of military vehicles, weapons, and equipment to Egypt's military.

That's not foreign aid. That's just sending billions of dollars worth of weapons to people in another country. The question is not, "Should we end foreign aid to Egypt." The question is, "Should Washington stop sending a billion dollars a year worth of weapons to a country that has overthrown two different governments in two years and is already killing people with the weapons Washington has already sent it?"

Just had to share this comment here in case you didn't see it. First, here's the comment it's in response to:

Anon - The police had every right to shoot the dog. The dog was going to ATTACK an officer. The police had to do what they needed to do to protect themselves. They are entitled to defend themselves from harm. you say it's animal cruelty but they are just doing their jobs. You clearly don't know the definition of animal cruelty if instantly killing an animal is so "cruel." Have you seen how lions hunt their prey? They eat them alive. And you guys talk about animal cruelty as if you know what it is.

And the comment of the week:

Anon 2 - Except for one thing. The Police Officer was the aggressor (assuming that this is a simple case of the police arresting somebody for filming them), filming the Police is not a crime.

The kidnapper had every right to shoot the dog. The dog was going to ATTACK an kidnapper. The kidnapper had to do what they needed to do to protect themselves. They are entitled to defend themselves from harm.

See how ridiculous that sounds. It sounds because a kidnapper is almost by definition the aggressor. It is the job of the police to stop these aggressors, but in this case the police officer himself was the aggressor. The dog neither knew nor cared if the guy taking his human had a badge, all the dog cared about was protecting his human from a kidnapper. Weather you where a badge or not, don't be an aggressor. That way you're much less likely to be attacked by a dog, or for that matter by a human.

Exactly. Police aren't some different species that get to operate by a different set of rules. Why does Anon 1 think the police officer has a right to defend himself, but not the dog and his caretaker?

Monday, August 12, 2013

This weekend, I decided to try out Pinterest to grow my social media experience and footprint just a little more. Luckily, I was able to grab http://pinterest.com/libertarianism as my Pinterest profile address.

If you have a Pinterest, please follow me or my boards you like at http://pinterest.com/libertarianism and leave the address to your Pinterest profile in the comments below so other readers and I can follow you!

I don't just follow libertarian and political pins. I like recipes (especially recipes for a healthy diet), health, science, infographics, design, and really so much of what's on Pinterest.